by Judy Handley | Dec 7, 2013 | Cape Cod USA, Sailing Logs Year 9 |
Day 48, Year 9: Santa Claus Comes to Falmouth
Date: Saturday, December 7, 2013
Weather: Heavy Rain Overnight, Clearing Today and Cooler
Location: Home of Bruce and Jane Woodin, West Falmouth, MA
All of the rain predicted for today came during the night and the skies starting clearing this morning. But with the clearing came cooler temps and the arrival of Santa Claus in Falmouth Harbor. Mark and I went in to meet Santa with Sam, Jonah, Ollie, and Jed. It’s fund raising time on public radio and Heather had a pledge shift this morning, but she arrived just as Ollie and Jonah got to sit on Santa’s lap. Sam watched but gave sitting on Santa’s lap a pass this year.
After meeting Santa, Mark and I took all three boys home with us for the afternoon. Tomorrow is Jed’s birthday and this afternoon was our gift of time which was a request for Jed from Heather. She and Jed both have wanted time to get the garage organized, so this afternoon was the beginning. It is a small garage packed with tools large and small, shelves piled high with stuff, wood left over from projects, bicycles, tricycles, and everything else you can think of. So for Jed’s birthday, Heather worked with him all afternoon to start the clean-up project. Mark and I headed to Bruce and Jane’s where Mark and Ollie took a nap while I prepared food for tonight’s dinner and Sam and Jonah played. Once I had the food prep under control, I drove Sam and Jonah to the beach for a romp in the afternoon sunshine and then on to the nearby bike path where they rode while I walked behind. The bike path is long and straight and the only rule was not to ride out of sight. Jonah took note of the mile markers on the path and we determined that he rode more than a half mile while Sam zoomed to ride for more than a mile by the time we headed back to the van. If I had been on a bike, I know the boys could have gone much further, but the main thing is that they enjoyed the afternoon. By the time we got home, Mark and Ollie were up and having a good time. Mark took over watching the boys while I got dinner ready. Once Heather and Jed arrived, we had a repeat of Thanksgiving dinner, this time with a chicken rather than a turkey, and LOTS of stuffing and gravy in addition to all the veggies. Heather and Jed arrived for dinner and then they were off with the boys to see the lighting of the Christmas tree on the green in Falmouth. It was another jam-packed day here on the Cape.
While Heather and Jed were here this evening, Heather asked me how her dad was feeling and I said, “He feels fine. He’s just miserable.” Heather immediately pointed out that my response made no sense, but actually I’ll defend it. Mark does feel fine, but today the sore mouth problem returned and that makes him miserable. However, the sore mouth is not yet anywhere near as bad as it was two weeks ago and we’ll hope it clears up soon. Chemo slows Mark down a bit, but if he paces himself, he can keep up his normal schedule with an hour’s nap built in every day.
Tomorrow we go back to boat living. We’ll spend the morning cleaning house here and the afternoon moving things back to the boat. In the middle we’ll go into Falmouth for the Annual Christmas Parade. Another busy day coming up.
by Judy Handley | Dec 6, 2013 | Cape Cod USA, Sailing Logs Year 9 |
Day 47, Year 9: Ugly Weather
Date: Friday, December 6, 2013
Weather: Overcast with Drizzles All Day, High in the Lower 50’s F
Location: Home of Bruce and Jane Woodin, West Falmouth, MA
The ugly weather continues. The temperature has been in the 50’s for the past two days, but it has been overcast and drizzly. And by mid-afternoon today, the temperature started dropping. The next few days are going to be cold with some precipitation. It might come as snow, sleet, or rain, all depending on what the temperature really decides what do. If it should get a few degrees colder than predicted we could have a little snow, but more than likely we will just get icy rain. Yuck. By Sunday when we move back to Windbird, it should be freezing. I don’t know how we have ended up with so much stuff here where we are housesitting, but we have. So we’ll have to brave the cold to get it all back.
Ollie and I went to the public library for a Tots ‘n Tales gathering this morning. Every Friday the library has storytime for little ones 15 months to 3 years. We sang and danced, had stories read to us, painted some holiday gift wrapping paper, and then went out into the Children’s Room to work puzzles and play in the playhouse. We then returned home to have lunch. And true to form, as soon as lunch was finished, Ollie put his head on my shoulder and told me that it was naptime. And just now, I woke up from an unplanned nap while sitting at the dining room table writing this log. So I’ll take that as a sign that it is most definitely time to go to bed
by Judy Handley | Dec 5, 2013 | Cape Cod USA, Sailing Logs Year 9 |
Day 46, Year 9: Pause to Honor Nelson Mandela
Date: Thursday, December 5, 2013
Weather: Overcast with Drizzles All Day, High in the Lower 50’s F
Location: Home of Bruce and Jane Woodin, West Falmouth, MA
On this day in 2010, Mark and I were in Richards Bay, South Africa, preparing to sail down the coast to Simon’s Town (near Cape Town). It wasn’t until mid-January that we visited Robben Island in Table Bay off the coast of Cape Town. Standing in the solitary cell where Mandela spent so many of his twenty-seven years of imprisonment was quite a sobering experience. The cell was bare except for a mat on the floor where he slept all those years, a neatly stacked pile of blankets, a wash stand, and a can that must have served as a toilet. The cell was no bigger than a small bathroom. But from that cell emerged a world leader that stood for all is that good in mankind. So I pause this evening in his honor.
by Judy Handley | Dec 4, 2013 | Cape Cod USA, Sailing Logs Year 9 |
Day 45, Year 9: Project Day
Date: Wednesday, December 4, 2013
Weather: Mostly Sunny with High in the Lower 40’s F
Location: Home of Bruce and Jane Woodin, West Falmouth, MA
Wednesdays are project days at the Goldstones and today was just a continuation of last week—cleaning windows. I could never make a living as a house cleaner as it just takes me too long to get cleaning-type projects completed. And I didn’t even complete the job today. I guess I will have to continue next Wednesday.
After Sam got home from school, Heather added a Christmas cookie project ala Martha Stewart. I found a very old Martha Stewart Christmas book here in the house where we are staying and it has great cookie recipes. I shared these with Heather and this afternoon was our first trial==Melissa’s Ginger Cookies which are good to eat and can also be used as ornaments. Sam’s friend Sebastian comes home with him on Wednesdays and today Jonah was home because he had an afternoon doctor’s appointment. Doing Christmas cookie cut-outs with four boys is a bit of a challenge, but we survived. And the cookies tasted great and looked even better. There were moments of frustration, but overall I would say the cookie making was a success. I’m thinking of trying a different Christmas cookie recipe every afternoon as an after-school snack and as a way of finding some cookie favorites.
Mark is doing great. He has much more energy than he did after chemo treatment #2 and the mouth sores are threatening but haven’t returned with a vengeance quite yet. So life is rolling along smoothly for now.
by Judy Handley | Dec 3, 2013 | Cape Cod USA, Sailing Logs Year 9 |
Day 44, Year 9: Life with Little Ollie
Date: Tuesday, December 3, 2013
Weather: Partly Sunny with High in the Mid 40’s F
Location: Home of Bruce and Jane Woodin, West Falmouth, MA
Mark and I both continue to enjoy our days with Ollie because life with little Ollie is just so much fun. At some point today, Mark noted how very thankful he is that we have the time to spend with our grandchildren . . . and that their parents allow us to do it. We still have that pull to go cruising, especially if we could get to Puerto Rico to spend some quality time with the other two grandchildren, but while we are here, we are certainly enjoying Sam, Jonah, and Ollie. Mark didn’t sleep much last night, so he spent a good deal of today at Heather and Jed’s on the sofa napping. Ollie and I started our morning playing with Lego Duplo trains in the playroom and every few minutes Ollie would escape and go into the living room to check on Granddad. He would touch his leg and very tentatively say, “Hi.” He would wait for Granddad to open his eyes to acknowledge him and then he would run back to the playroom. So precious.
Ollie and I then headed outside for our morning outdoor playtime and found the weather today to be most pleasant. We played ball, raked leaves, and played in the garden and on the swings. Then it was time for lunch and nap. Granddad moved from the sofa downstairs to the bed next to Ollie’s for “official” naptime. While the babes were sleeping, I went shopping for food and craft supplies for holiday projects. Then it was time to walk to school to pick up Sam. We let the boys play on the playground afterschool and by the time we got home, the sun was low in the sky. Sam worked on his homework while Ollie played with little Styrofoam balls covered in glitter (one of the craft supplies I bought today) on the kitchen floor. This was his ‘homework’ and he took it very seriously. Who would ever guess that a $1.99 bag of glittery balls could be so much fun. After he finished his ‘official’ homework, Sam joined Ollie and they both continued to enjoy playing with those glittery balls while I started working on dinner. I worried a little about the glitter on the kitchen floor, but they were having so much fun I couldn’t bear to stop them. Sam was fantastic with Ollie. After playing with him with the glittery balls, he played Duplo Lego trains with him, and then he took him in the living room and read to him while I continued to cook. For dinner I fixed Oma’s Best Salmon Cakes and after dinner we actually got to see Heather doing her piece on the Greater Boston television program. Heather looked great and sounded even better, but I got a real kick out of Sam watching her. He looked at me with a furrowed brow and said, “Don’t you think mommy should dress a little nicer if she is going to be on television?” He might be six, but he thinks and acts like a teenager! Jonah, on the other hand, thought momma looked great. The difference between a four and a six year-old is like the difference in night and day. And I should add that Ollie just wanted to pull momma right out of the television set so she could be in the room with him.
by Judy Handley | Dec 2, 2013 | Cape Cod USA, Sailing Logs Year 9 |
Day 43, Year 9: Chemo Treatment #3
Date: Monday, December 2, 2013
Weather: Mostly Cloudy with High in the Mid 40’s F
Location: Home of Bruce and Jane Woodin, West Falmouth, MA
Mark had chemo treatment #3 today which means he is halfway through this round. His blood levels are still perfect, he is not losing weight or hair (yet), and the mouth sores have gone away. They will most likely return in a couple of days and then vanish again by the middle of next week. Or maybe we will be tremendously lucky and they will not return at all. We’re going to make sure he gets lots of rest this week (unlike the week after treatment #2) and see if that makes a difference.
Today was a very quiet day. I wrapped some Christmas gifts that will be sent to Puerto Rico and we took a walk with Siggy (Bruce and Jane’s dog). Tomorrow we are back at Heather’s taking care of Ollie. It looks like the daytime temperature will remain in the 40’s until the weekend. About the time we move back to Windbird, the temperature takes a dip, but Windbird is always snug and warm, so no problem.
By the way, our sailing friends Geoff and Chris made it to Norfolk yesterday. They promised to call once they get settled. They almost froze to death on the first night out of New York, but it was 50 degrees and sunny in Norfolk when they arrived, so they were very happy . . . and warm.
